This application relates to field programmable radio frequency communications systems in general, and more particularly to a field configurable digital signal processing circuits adapted to be interconnected to form any of a plurality of digital signal processing circuit configurations. Descriptions of the various components of the system are contained in co-pending patent applications owned by the assignee hereof and filed concurrently herewith, specifically: U.S. Pat. No. 6,091,765, Issued on Jul. 18, 2000, entitled xe2x80x9cReconfigurable Radio System Architecture And Method Thereforxe2x80x9d; U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 09/184,716, entitled xe2x80x9cA Control System For Controlling The Processing Data Of A First In First Out Memory And Method Thereforxe2x80x9d; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/184,710, entitled xe2x80x9cA System For Accelerating the Reconfiguration of a Transceiver and Method Thereforxe2x80x9d; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/184,709, entitled xe2x80x9cA Field Programmable Radio Frequency Communications Equipment Including A Configurable IF Circuit, And Method Thereforexe2x80x9d; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/184,711, entitled xe2x80x9cA Field Programmable Modulator-Demodulator Arrangement For Radio Frequency Communications Equipment, And Method Thereforxe2x80x9d, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/184,708, entitled xe2x80x9cA Digital Noise Blanker For Communications Systems And Methods Thereforxe2x80x9d; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/184,712, entitled xe2x80x9cTCM Revisiting System and Methodxe2x80x9d; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/184,941, entitled xe2x80x9cLeast Squares Phase Fit As Frequency Estimatexe2x80x9d; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/184,715, entitled xe2x80x9cPolar Computation of Branch Metrics For TCMxe2x80x9d; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/184,746, entitled xe2x80x9cEfficient Modified Viterbi Decoderxe2x80x9d; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/184,713, entitled xe2x80x9cReceiver For a Reconfigurable Radio System and Method Thereforexe2x80x9d; each of which is incorporated herein by reference.
In the use of radio frequency equipment for communications, there is a need for a large a variety types of communication devices, such as receivers, transmitters and transceivers that are able to operate with a large variety of communications schemes, or waveforms such as, AM, AME, A3E, H3E, J3E, CW, SSB, M-PSK, QAM, ASK, angular modulation, including FM, PM, FSK, CMP, MSK, CPFSK etc., as well a need of being able to process the signals within the communications devices, such as by filtering, gain control, impulse noise rejection, etc. To achieve this in the past, a plurality of different dedicated pieces of equipment was required, such as, receivers, transmitters and transceivers, each designed to operate with separate communication schemes or waveforms, or a limited group of schemes or waveforms. Hence it would be desirous to have a configurable type of radio frequency communications equipment that is readily field programmable to function as a transmitter and receiver and to be able to be programmed to function with any of the above mentioned communications schemes or waveforms.
An important building block for a configurable type transceiver is a configurable digital intermediate frequency (IF) transmitter and receiver signal processing circuit that can be field programmed to provide the receiver demodulation functions and transmitter modulator functions and also corresponding waveform filtering and shaping. Hence, it would be desirous to have a digital IF demodulator and modulator circuits that is field programmable to operate with a large variety types of communications schemes, or waveforms such as, AM, AME, A3E, H3E, J3E, CW, SSB, M-PSK, QAM, ASK, angular modulation, including FM, PM, FSK, CMP, MSK, CPFSK etc. Further, there are times when multiple types of outputs are desirous from such circuits, such as cartesian and polar, for the same signal scheme or waveform. Hence, it would be desirous if a field programmable digital baseband signal processing circuit would be provided that would programmable to function with a variety of signaling schemes or waveforms and that could provide multiple outputs for signaling schemes.
The IF signal processing circuits of this type are now often designed as digital circuits. These digital circuits are also adaptable to be physically embodied in a semiconductor chip, such as a application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Depending upon the type of signaling scheme to which the radio frequency communications system is configured, the output from the demodulator or the input to the modulator may need further processing. It would be advantageous if the circuits for further processing the signals could be implemented as an ASIC. It would also be advantageous if a plurality of such signal processing circuits could be included in the same ASIC with the other digital circuits.
In the addition, quite often there is a need for portable battery operated radio frequency communication equipment. Hence it is desirous with battery operated type of equipment to make the equipment as small and as light as practical for ease of handling, and to reduce the power drain on the equipment battery to extend the portable life of the equipment.
It is therefor an object of this invention to provide a new and improved digital signal processing system for use with IF signal processing system for radio frequency communications equipment that includes a demodulator and a modulator, and which includes a plurality of signal processing circuits that can be interconnected and configured in any of a plurality of a variety of signal processing circuits for the demodulator and modulator circuits.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a new and improved type of digital signal processing system for use with IF signal processing system for radio frequency communications equipment that includes a demodulator and a modulator and that can be readily configured by the user in the field to operate with any of a plurality of communications schemes or waveforms, and which includes a plurality of signal processing circuits that can be interconnected and configured in any of a plurality of a variety of signal processing circuits for further processing of the signals into and out of the demodulator and modulator circuits.
Is also an object of this invention to provide a new and improved type of digital signal processing system for use with IF signal processing system for radio frequency communications equipment that includes a demodulator and a modulator and that can be readily configured by the user in the field to operate with any of a plurality of communications schemes or waveforms, and which includes a plurality of signal processing circuits that can be interconnected and configured in any of a plurality of a variety of signal processing circuits for further processing of the signals into and out of the demodulator and modulator circuits.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a new and improved of digital IF signal processing system for radio frequency communications equipment that includes a demodulator and a modulator and a plurality of configurable signal processing circuits that can be readily configured by the user in the field to connect the output of the demodulator and the input to modulator to further process the output of the demodulator and the input to the modulator.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a new and improved digital IF radio frequency communications equipment that can be readily configured by the user in the field that is relatively light weight.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a new and improved radio frequency communications equipment that can be readily reconfigured by the user in the field that is designed to use reduced battery power to extend the life of the portable mode of operation. These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains from a perusal of the claims, the appended drawings, and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.